Tip of the hat

[DANIEL JOSEPH]

I tip my hat to woodsrider. The man rode the lipflapper after he was warned. It was tough and he still showed up, I tip my hat to him. He made it thur the gas, what happened after that who knows but he showed up and rode, that's what counts. I have rode it several times my self and it wasn't easy. All I can say is he rode it with out any lip flapping (Got that PapaTurtle :p Please notice the capitaized letters) Any one else want to ride the Berkshires?

 

[WoodsRider]

DJ - That was one hell of an enduro!

I smoked through the first section dropping 4 points and passing a bunch of riders. Did you know that when two KTM 4-strokes go down in a rock garden, they make for excellent traction. After squatting in the trees at the first reset I had to haul ass down the road and zero'd the check-in to the second section.

I was still doing pretty good until I lost the trail (I've gotta stop following the bike in front of me) and had to turn around. When I did find the trail it took me straight into another rock garden where a few riders I had already passed were once again floundering. In the middle of it all was an XR600 with a broken chain. I bull-dogged my way through and promptly lost the trail... again. When I finally did spot another arrow it led me up this hill with a series of rock ledges (is this the infamous ledges section?) I dropped my bike three times in an effort to make it up. When I finally reached the top I had to rest and cool down a bit. I heard several bikes approaching and when I looked forward there was a group of riders that I had passed in the first section coming right at me. They ended up turning left before they got to me. Now I'm not sure if I followed the wrong trail or if these guys cut the course, but I took off after them. Unfortunately another unfortunate incident going up the next big hill forced me to take another unscheduled break. By the time I made it to Dan's E-check I was so far behind it wasn't even funny.

The ride back to the pits and the short rest rejuvinated me and, against my better judgement, I headed out on the second loop. Unfortunately, due to a mathematical error, I burned the next check after the restart by two minutes. I left that check and headed into the next section where I decided to use a boulder to remove half my rear brake pedal. This made going downhill rather tricky. In trying to avoid a serious incident I blazed some new trail and completely lost the arrows. I followed a trail until it popped out on a road where I saw an arrow which I followed to check 8. The only problem was I missed check 7. The guys said I could continue riding the last 15 miles, but instead I put on a skirt and took the Nancy path back to the pits.

My hat's off to the Bershire Trail Riders for putting on this event. My conditioning (or lack of) was a definite factor in the mental mistakes that I made. However I'm not going to even complain about the 95° and 80% humidity.

 

[DANIEL JOSEPH]

If you missed the last 15 miles you missed the ledges and the really tough stuff. The ledges would be easy to notice, there would have been spectators and bikes sprawled out all over the place. Only 13 riders made it up them clean. You just missed me a second time I was running check 9 too.

 

[RM_guy]

Originally posted by WoodsRider
...I put on a skirt and took the Nancy path back to the pits....

I can say we all figured that was going to happen:p

Glad I wasn't there :debil:

 

[WoodsRider]

Originally posted by RM_guy
I can say we all figured that was going to happen:p

Glad I wasn't there :debil:

Better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all... now I've got a goal. ;)

 

[Papakeith]

Yo' mad props to Woods for showing up and riding the Lip Flapper.
As far as me giving the Flapper a try. . .
Dan, since you've seen me ride now; do I have the skills necessary to even attempt the Flapper? If I don't, how about a Berkshire primer ride to help me hone my skills?

 

[WoodsRider]

Papa - Like Dan told me, you've got the right attitude to be an enduro rider. Find out from Dan what some of the more "beginner friendly" enduros are.

If you had tried the Lip Flapper as a first enduro you would have been extremely disenchanted and probably never have ridden one again.

FYI - The Speedsville Enduro (in Speedsville, NY) on 8/18 is a lot more beginner friendly as the trail is all 100% rideable. This is an AMA rules enduro and they check you in and check you out of the points taking sections.

---Woods

 

[weimedog]

Ithaca Dirt Riders are going to have work parties over the weekend (August 10th and 11th). Speedsville is about 20 miles away so I will help. Rumor has it they will make it really interesting this year. One section used for their Hare Scrambles was about 2 miles of Huge Exposed Roots and rocks. Dry its fine. Wet its crash and burn heaven. The "Creek Bed" may be used this time around to keep things interesting.

 

[WoodsRider]

Last year the creek bed was the only section that you could actually compare to a New England rock garden. Everything else was fast and easy, but for some reason I just couldn't ride fast that day and took too many soil samples in between checks. Then I ended up burning two easy checks by making stupid mental mistakes. Fortunately I was always able to get back on time at the resets.

Like any enduro, hare scramble or mx race. If the weather gets nasty conditions will deteriorate. This is all part of the game so you need to practice riding in the sloppy, nasty stuff too.

 

[LoriKTM]

Originally posted by weimedog
Rumor has it they will make it really interesting this year.

I hope it's not too interesting. :think:

After all of Dave's nice comments about last year's trail, I'm kinda hoping that Speedsville will be the "one"!

Papa, check www.ecea.org. There's a whole bunch of enduros still to go, some of them reputed to be good beginner enduros (Beehive). And the drive may be comparable.

 

[DANIEL JOSEPH]

Originally posted by Papakeith
[Dan, since you've seen me ride now; do I have the skills necessary to even attempt the Flapper? If I don't, how about a Berkshire primer ride to help me hone my skills? [/B]

The Lip Flapper is a tough one. Unfortunatly like Woodsrider said if you rode it you would probably never attempt another one You got the right attitude. The Cockaponset Enduro is in Oct. it's the easiest NETRA enduro and a good one for the first timer. It's also a enduro I've been laying out for years. You should give it a try, it's fun.

 

[WoodsRider]

DJ - Maybe Papa should try the Triple B Turkey Run first.

---Woods

 

[Papakeith]

When and where is that?
Bear in mind that any weekend ride between the last weekend in August and Oct 31 is a no-go :(

 

[DANIEL JOSEPH]

Sept 29TH